WHEELING - Nearly left for dead midway through the season with an 8-18 record, Moundsville is riding an 11-game winning streak and is the top seed heading into the double-elimination Area One Tournament, which begins at 2 today at the I-470 Complex.

Who saw that coming?

''I don't know,'' Moundsville manager Bill Burkett said.

''We just started having everything going together, stopped committing errors.''

Moundsville (19-18) went 5-1 against the rest of the teams in the Area - Wheeling, Weirton, and Wellsburg - with the lone loss coming to Wheeling.

''They're pretty hot lately; they've been hitting the ball,'' noticed Wheeling Legion manager Tom Pasco. ''Eleven in a row is pretty impressive.''

Still, Burkett, who didn't have enough kids at practice to field a full team Tuesday and will be without one his top hitters in OVAC football All-Star Ryan Lewicki, thinks any one of the four teams has a legitimate shot to win the tourney.

''I think it's open unless we get it together,'' he said. ''Anybody can get it together and win it.''

Zane Madden and Casey Defibaugh are Post 3's top hitters, while an injury riddled pitching staff is keyed by Logan Patrick and Justin Fox.

''We'll see what we can do,'' Burkett said.

Wheeling

Wheeling Post 1 is keyed by a strong run in the Beast of the East. Plus, it's playing host to the tournament, which Pasco says can only help.

''I think there's a lot of advantages,'' he said. ''There's a confidence level, the scenery, the background, hopefully the home crowd.''

Wheeling (19-13) went 4-2 against Area One teams, having swept Wellsburg and split with Weirton and Moundsville, with each of those losses coming late in the season.

''But we're ready for this tournament,'' Pasco vowed.

Andrew ''Budda'' Henry -a nickname since childhood because he was a big little boy - is the team's leading hitter at .420, followed by Jon-Michael Brunner just below .400.

The pitching staff is led by West Virginia Wesleyan's Warren Hammel, but Pasco spoke highly of the quality innings he's gotten out of Cory Walters, Andrew Kozusko and R.J. Vargo as well.

''The whole pitching staff is doing a nice job of throwing the ball over the plate and letting our defense do the work,'' Pasco said. ''The big surprise has been us being young and being tough defensively.''

Weirton

Weirton won just seven games this season, but two of them came against Area teams - one more than Wellsburg - allowing it to earn the No. 3 seed.

One of those two victories was a late-season victory against Wheeling, a confidence builder heading into this tournament.

''We had good pitching, great defense, and we came up with big hits,'' Weirton manager Eric Hayden said of that game.

Speaking of hitting, that's been Weirton's strength of late, with guys like Garrett LeMasters hitting .450 on the season, Max Nogay (.417), Logan Linder (.348), Cameron Rauch (.327) and Billy Perkins .317 all swinging hot bats.

''We're hitting very well right now,'' Hayden reported.

Ed Nogay and Chris Bittinger are the leaders of the pitching staff.

''We're very up,'' Hayden said. ''We believe that we can beat anybody as long as we play very well.''

Wellsburg

The youngest team in the tournament by far is just getting back from a big experience having playing against Morgantown on West Virginia University's Hawley Field.

The problem for Post 34 has been just what you'd expect out of a young team. One day they field but can't hit. Next day they hit but can't field.

''It's been tough to get that combo,'' manager Kirk Furioli said. ''Lately haven't hit the ball. Hopefully we saved them for the tournament.''

David Alward is the team's leading hitter at right around .420, with Nick Breen, a rising sophomore at Brooke, hitting .403.

Nobody else is terribly close, Furioli said.

Leading the pitching staff is veteran Zach Schaffer, but he's unlikely to start because of arm soreness from the weekend, meaning Brian Trimmer and Alward are in line for the ball.

''It's going to be tough, but hey, we're going to go in there and throw all of our punches and have fun doing it, too,'' Furioli said.